Encyclopedia of Meal Prep Volume I

216 Pages·2014·27.71 MB·English

Cooking and meal prepping should be enjoyable. Here at Isolator Fitness, we strive to
make your experiences doing so as simple and fun as possible. That’s why we’ve
assembled our most useful cooking hacks into one easy-to-navigate list. Enjoy!
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1. Prepare What You Need - Professional Chefs practice Mise En Place, which is French
for ‘Everything In Its Place.’ This refers to prepping your ingredients and tools prior to
cooking your meals. By taking this extra step you are actually saving yourself time
and stress. Instead of searching for your measuring spoons and then measuring your
spices while your food is overcooking, you’ll have everything prepped and ready for
cooking ahead of time.
2. Clean - Before you start cooking, you want to make sure that you have a clean
workspace, clean cooking utensils, clean hands, and hair pulled out of your face and
away from your food. This will cut down on prep and cooking time and will diminish the
risk of spreading bacteria.
3. Buy Quality - The ingredients make the meal. Buy high quality natural or organic
produce and meats. Never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t drink, and never cook with
an oil unless it tastes good on it’s own. If it doesn’t taste good on it’s own, it won’t taste
good in your food.
4. Wash Food - Before cooking, you’ll want to make sure that your meats, fruits,
vegetables, etc. are all cleaned to prevent the spread of disease and bacteria. Be sure to
wash your hands when switching between handling these items. ALWAYS wash hands
IMMEDIATELY after handling any raw meat products.
5. Utilize Your Tongs - Use them as an extension of your hands. They can be used to flip
your meat, pull a pan out of the oven, and stabilize hot or messy ingredients (steak,
chicken, pork, etc.) while you cut them.
6. Use Paper Towels - They aren’t just for cleaning up messes, they’re also for preventing
them. Put a wet paper towel under your cutting board before you start chopping away to
make sure it stays securely in place during your ingredient prep.
7. Keep It Closed - Avoid opening the oven door or crock pot lid (or any other pot or pan lid
for that matter) while you’re food is cooking (unless necessary) as it will let out heat and
reduce the internal temperature which will increase your cooking time.
8. Avoid Pan Handles - Keep your panhandles turned into the stove. If they are hanging
over the stove you are more likely to accidently bump it or hit it and cause the pan to fall,
spilling and ruining your meals, and possibly burning yourself.
9. Clean As You Go - Don’t start out with a pristine kitchen and finish with a war zone.
Cleaning as you go ensures that you won’t have a disastrous mess to clean up after
cooking and also makes the actual cooking process smoother because items are easier
to find and already clean (if they need to be re-used in measurement, cutting or mixing).
10.Enjoy The Experience - If you treat meal prepping like a chore, it’s going to be a major
pain in your life and cause you unnecessary stress, but if you treat it like a culinary
adventure, it will be an enjoyable and exciting experience that you’ll look forward to each
week.
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1. Tenderize - Adding one or two tablespoons of vinegar onto your meat while it cooks will
aid in the tenderization process.
2. Marinade - Do NOT marinate meat with citrus juices. Rather than adding juiciness and
flavor, it will actually dry out the cut and ruin your meat. If you want a citrusy flavor added
to your meal, wait to add it to the finished product--this will also make the citrus taste
more prominent while using less juice.
3. Let It Rest - Always let your meat rest for a few minutes after cooking, before cutting into
it. This is especially important if the meat has been grilled.
4. Freeze and Cut - To make meats like pancetta and bacon easier to cut, place them in
the freezer for 15 minutes. This process makes them firmer and thus easier to cut.
5. Roasting - When roasting meats and poultry, save time by buying the bone-in option.
The bone helps carry the heat to the inside of the roast faster, resulting in shorter
cooking times.
6. Brine It - Be sure to brine all of your poultry before cooking to give it added flavor.
1. Get It Crispy - To make your fish nice and crispy, rest it on paper towels (skin side down)
before cooking. This will pull unnecessary moisture from your fish. Next, sauté your fish
(also skin side down in oil, over medium heat and flip only once (towards the end of the
cooking process.
2. The 10-Minute Rule - When cooking fish, use the 10-minute rule. Measure the thickest
part of the fish and adjust cooking times accordingly. You’ll want to cook the fish for
about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Flip the fish once--about halfway through.
(Double the cooking time if you’re cooking frozen/not defrosted fish.)
3. Wrap It - If you’re new to cooking fish or if the process still intimidates you, wrap it in
packets of parchment paper before you bake it; this will allow the fish to cook by the
trapped steam. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes.
4. Try It Crispy - Bread tilapia with whole-wheat breadcrumbs or panko and bake in the
oven. You’ll get the crunch you want, without the calories of fried fish.
5. Know Your Temp - Finished fish should reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees F.
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1. Quickly Ripen - If you need your vegetables to ripen quickly, simply place them in a
brown paper bag and store them in a cool, dry, dark, space overnight. By the morning,
they will have ripened.
2. Shocking - To stop the cooking process of your veggies and ensure that they retain
crispness, transfer them directly into cold water after cooking.
3. Stuffed Peppers - When making stuffed peppers, use an ungreased muffin tin as a mold
to keep them upright while stuffing and baking.
4. Garlic - When sautéing garlic, it will be less likely to burn if you slice it rather than mince
it. (To remove the scent of garlic from your hands simply run them over stainless steel
[sink, bar, etc.] for 30 seconds before washing them).
5. Hot Spicy Peppers - Turning down the heat on spicy peppers is often as easy as
removing the seeds. To do that, you’ll want to cut lengthwise and spoon the seeds out of
the pepper. Tip: Wash your hands after you touch hot peppers as the oils have the ability
to burn your eyes and skin.
6. Wrap Your Mushrooms - To avoid a slimy layer forming on your mushrooms during
storage, wrap them in paper towels.
7. Keep It Fresh - Extending the crispness of vegetables is as easy as storing them in your
refrigerator's crisper drawer over a layer of paper towels. The paper towels work to pull
the excess moisture away from your vegetables leaving them fresher, longer.
8. Bring It Back To Life - Place your limp vegetables in a bowl of ice cold water with a slice
of raw potato. This will bring your wilting vegetables back to life.
9. Cut Corn Off The Cob - Make cutting corn off the cob an easy and mess-free task by
using a Bundt pan. Stick the ear of corn into the hollowed-out center hole and proceed to
run your knife straight down the corn allowing all of the kernels to fall directly into the
Bundt pan. (After cutting the corn off of the cob, run the back of the knife [not the blade]
over it to extract the milk of the cob. Stir this into the corn to add body and flavor.)
10.Keep It Together - Dicing an onion can be complicated, but you can make it easier by
not removing the root. Leaving the root on for the dicing process with make sure that the
onion stays conveniently together rather than sliding around your cutting board.
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1. Remove Acidic Taste - Adding just a pinch of soda bicarbonate to tomato-based sauces
will remove the acidic taste from the tomatoes.
2. Always In-Season - Make sure you always have the fruit you’re craving on hand by
buying fruit from farmer’s markets when it’s at the peak of its season and immediately
freezing it. This means you can have any fruit you want, any time of year (as long as you
haven’t eaten your entire stock yet).
3. Juice It - Guarantee that you’re getting the most out of your lemon or lime when you
juice it by first heating it in the microwave for 10 seconds and then rolling it forcefully
under your palm for a minute before slicing into it and extracting the juice.
4. Zest It - Rather than zesting a lemon or lime into a separate bowl and later transferring it
to your ingredients, wait to perform this step until you can zest directly onto the
ingredients. The aromatic citrus oils will provide more flavors to your dish this way.
5. Without A Juicer - If you don’t have a juicer and you can’t squeeze a lemon or lime hard
enough to extract enough juice simply grab a pair of sturdy tongs to help give you
leverage.
1. Cut Herbs - To keep your herbs from flying around during chopping, add a very small
amount of salt to the cutting board.
2. Keep Basil Fresh - Putting the basil stems into water and storing at room temperature
will help keep it fresher, longer.
3. Season In Stages - When seasoning a dish you want to make sure you season it from
start to finish, for the duration of the entire cooking process. This helps to pull out the
flavors of the seasonings.
4. Freezer Fresh - To keep your herbs fresh, it’s easiest to combine similar herbs into
bunches, place in a sealable plastic bag, and store them in the freezer. They will be
easier to chop when you’re ready to use them and they will defrost immediately upon
placement into the hot pan.
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1. Know Your Storage - Be cognizant of how long your eggs have been sitting in the
refrigerator before you decide to cook with them. Here are your maximum storage times.
Raw eggs (in shell) = 4-5 weeks after packaged date. Raw egg (beaten) = 2 days. Raw
egg whites = 4 days. Raw egg yolks = 2 days. Hard-Boiled (in or out of shell) = 1 week.
2. Test It - To test whether or not an egg is fresh, all you’ll need is a glass of water. Place
the egg in the water and if it sinks, it’s fresh. If it floats, it’s probably old, or just a bag egg
and you’ll want to avoid cooking with it.
3. Peel It - One of the most annoying things about making hard-boiled eggs is peeling
them. It becomes much easier to do if you run them under cold water immediately after
boiling them and then refrigerating them for 30 minutes prior to peeling. (If you don’t
have time to refrigerate them running them under cold water in an ice bath will cool them
faster).
4. Through The Funnel - If you only want the egg whites, then crack your egg over a
funnel. The egg white will run through the funnel and the yolk will remain intact in the
funnel.
1. Remove The Fat - To remove the fat, put the entire pot into the refrigerator and let sit for
about 30 minutes. The fat will congeal on the top and will be easy to spoon out of the
soups, stocks or stews.
2. Minimize The Salt - Add lemon juice to balance the salt. If it’s still too salty, add a few
wedges of raw potato or apple slices to it and simmer for 10 minutes, then remove them.
3. Try Water - If you don’t have any broth but want to make a soup, you can substitute
water--this also helps cut down on sodium consumption When using water, you’ll need to
add in your own salt since it's not pre-salted.
4. Flavor Is Your Friend - Use a healthy amount of herbs and spices including: chili powder,
curry powder, paprika, garlic, bay leaves or chives (especially when you use water as
your base). These will add spark and flavor to your soups. If you crave more flavor try
adding more acidic ingredients like: tomatoes, vinegar, yogurt, or lemon/lime juice.
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Meal Prepping 101
The idea of meal prepping can be overwhelming and daunting to people who have never tried it
before, and although there is an art in the practice, it is actually much easier than most would
believe. Here you’ll find everything you need to know about the basics of meal prepping to make
your life easier and your meal prepping experience better.
The Right Tools for The Job
Much like anything else in life, you need the right
tools to successfully and efficiently meal prep.
There are a few things that will be absolutely
necessary from day one (containers, mixing
bowls, knives, and a cutting board) and others
that you can acquire along the way to assist in
your meal prepping (a scale, rice cooker, crock
pot, food processor, and foil baking sheets or
pans).
Meal Prep Bags
Meal prep is for the health- and weight-conscious, and those committed to their fitness goals.
Isolator Fitness created meal management bags to accommodate your busy schedule.
ISOBAG meal coolers, ISOPACK backpacks, and ISODUFFLES allow you to easily organize
your meals and manage your health, weight, and fitness goals. All bags are handmade in the
USA.
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